The Secret Team

"All of you, come at me together."

Asher said after he took off his outer clothing.

Surprisingly, none of them tried to convince him otherwise or talk him out of it. This was because their training in the past couple of months had made them realize that the gap between them and Asher was wide. Even though they had also got stronger and improved, none of them believed that Asher remained the same as he was back then. After all, the potions that they used to grow had their supply controlled by him.

"Young lord, be careful." One of the third-stage Guardian mages said. To be specific, he was the strongest amongst the men and the only mid-rank third-stage Guardian mage.

Right after that, the mage alongside two of his other compatriots charged at Asher.

Not only were they the strongest but they were also the fastest, making them perfect candidates to be the vanguard. Also, they knew that if they gave Asher enough time to prepare, their loss would be imminent. Hence, they needed to keep Asher busy, long enough for the others to get close and gang up on him.

This might sound despicable, but Asher raised these men to not consider things like a warrior's code of conduct or chivalry. In fact, some of them were even war veterans so, they knew better than to behave foolishly in a fight.

Seeing three fit men charge at him with intense speed, Asher was unperturbed and didn't even bother to take a stance. The current him was far different from himself a few weeks ago, much less the 13-year-old child from the previous year. This was because, after the battle with Fenrir's clone, Asher had got stronger.

The face-off with death improved Asher's mental senses that when he was in seclusion during the return trip from the Manchurian forest, Asher had managed to reach the fifth stage of the Guardian realm in terms of mental power. While it didn't seem like much, it meant that Asher's reactions and mental processing speed were beyond that of most mages, and far ahead of those of his current age group. However, that wasn't all.

Asher had also progressed in his mana training, reaching the mid-rank of the third stage and infinitely close to the peak rank. This was possible thanks to his constitution, experience, and heightened mental senses. If it weren't because Asher was suppressing his growth speed to prevent any side effects on his body, he would have been at the peak by now and would reach the fourth-stage of the Guardian realm in a month.

In summary, the current Asher, while still not on par with Fenrir's clone, could hold his own against the team leader fourth-stage Guardian mage from before. In fact, he could defeat him with more ease and even take on the duo. Three third-stage Guardian mages weren't a problem for him.

"Let's go."

Asher didn't wait for them to reach him and instead dashed toward the trio. When he was close, he punched at the closest mage and sent a kick to the one next to him. As for the last mage, Asher flicked at him with his free hand, sending a small ice dagger at him.

Bam.

Bam.

Crack.

The two mages who were faced with physical attacks blocked them while the last one coated his hand with mana and punched at the ice dagger, cracking it and deflecting it to the side.

The two mages who were closest to Asher cast spells at him from that distance, with no consideration for mana management.

Usually, at this range, most Guardian realm mages below the sixth-stage would attack physically with their body coated in thick mana, but the duo knew that wasn't enough. In fact, a physical attack would be much slower than a spell, especially for an opponent like Asher, so, one could consider their move to be wise.

Asher blinked once when he felt a surge of mana gather in front of him and dart toward him. At the moment, he couldn't retreat as the duo had grabbed onto his foot and fist respectively. So, all that Asher could do at the moment was to block the attack.

Right after Asher blinked, an ice obstacle formed in front of the trajectory of both attacks.

Bang.

The ice wall broke apart but Asher had managed to direct the shards away from him and towards the mages instead. This was done by shaping the obstacle in a half-spherical form that utilized the blast from the attacks to explode in the direction of the two mages.

Scared, they both hurriedly let go of Asher's limbs and tried to escape while setting up defensive barriers against the ice shards. However, their action of closing the gap between them and Asher while also holding him down, became their downfall as both men got pierced by some shards, albeit their faces were safe.

The third mage arrived at this moment and cast a fire arrow that darted at Asher in an attempt to create some breathing room for his teammates.

Asher was forced to stop and dodge the attack, but this enabled the other two mages to create some distance from him. Before Asher could pursue again, the others had arrived. Twenty-five mages were now a few steps away from him.

Asher calmed down and analyzed the situation first. No matter how the group wanted to attack, not more than three could do it at once. Although it looked like Asher was disadvantaged, he wasn't. Having numbers on one's side can be advantageous but that was only if there was some form of cooperation between members. If there wasn't, confusion would unfold and some might end up attacking themselves. The same applied here. Asher knew this and the men knew it also, which was why Asher believed that not more than three can attack at a moment; and with his strength, handling three mages below him at once wasn't a problem.

Even as they approached, Asher had already cast a spell at the group.

Ice daggers appeared all around him and shot at the group. At the same time, Asher dashed toward them with the idea of using the commotion caused by his spell to take them down.

Blows were traded, or rather, dished out by Asher as within the first three seconds of clashing with the group, he had already taken down six men. The mages realized this and immediately spread out, hoping to drop Asher's take-down rate. Even so, this decision of theirs turned in his favour as it made it easier for Asher to take them one at a time.

"!!!"

Just when Asher was about to knock out another mage, a terrifying sensation crept behind him and he immediately moved to the side.

Boom.

A blue water snake went past his original position and crashed on the floor a few metres away. If Asher had remained there, the water snake would have crashed into him and forced him to the ground with an intense force capable of breaking his ribs.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about us?" Aaron smiled as he conjured up five one-metre long boulders.

As for Luther, he waved his hand to the side and another water snake appeared staring menacingly at Asher.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you guys are really trying to kill me." Asher said.

"You're the one who always says we should give it our all and not hold back. We're just following your instructions." Luther replied.

"Get ready 'cause this won't be fun for you." Aaron said as he prepared to move.

"Wait," Asher called out.

"This won't do." Asher shook his head.

Just when everyone thought that he would have Luther and Aaron stand down, Asher spoke up again.

"The rest of you, go arm yourselves with weapons. At this rate, without them, you won't lay a finger on my shirt."

The group was shocked by Asher's declaration. Facing them as they were was considerably different from doing so when they are armed. One should know that all Arnhaunt guards are trained to be soldiers and soldiers fought with weapons. When Asher had stated that he wanted to take them all on, no one argued partly because they were aware of his strength and also knew that without their weapons, they were at a bit of a disadvantage. However, now that Asher wanted them armed, the group refused to calmly cooperate.

"Young lord, we can't agree to that." The strongest mage amongst them said.

Asher didn't reply right away but stared at him intensely.

"When you were introduced to this corps, what was the paramount rule taught?" Asher asked.

The mage was a bit surprised but hurriedly replied,

"The young lord's words are the law; not even that of the king or the duke comes close."

If this line were to be heard outside, it could count as treason and Asher would be arrested for prosecution by the Department of Punishment and Censures. Although most great families raised their private soldiers with similar lines, none of them allowed it to leak or made it obvious, after all, even though they wielded massive influence in the Great Dawn kingdom, they were still beneath the behemoth who oversaw the kingdom, the Castellan family.

"Then why are you still standing there?" Asher narrowed his eyes.

Seeing that there was no room for bargaining, the mage, alongside the others, went to a small building by the side of the training ground and retrieved their weapons.

"Good. Now, we continue."